This is Chelsea LaBate (a.k.a. Ten Cent Poetry) printing a series of short poems on a Vandercook printing press in the Fall Concentration taught by Beth Schaible (a.k.a. Quill and Arrow). Chelsea is a singer, songwriter, poet, and traveler, but she says, “letterpress is my new love.”
This is is the workshop’s studio assistant Celia Jailer (a.k.a. Afterschool Detective) making a pressure print onto a vellum press sheet. Pressure printing is an image-making technique in which a textured, flexible sheet is placed between the press sheet and the drum and then passed over a smooth, inked surface in the bed of the press. The image is transferred to the press sheet because it gets inked more heavily where there is pressure created by the textured sheet. It’s one of the many ways to work with these presses that Beth is covering in the workshop.
Slow down. Be still. Pay attention. Take note. —Beth Schaible
Details of Beth’s studio desk filled with calligraphy, letterpress, book samples, and more.
There’s an attentiveness and quiet that flows through Beth Schaible’s considerable body of work—tonal letterpress prints, meandering and elegant calligraphy, hand-bound leather journals with stitching along the spines. Her hands seem capable of communicating calm presence into her materials.
Beth is a printer and an artist, an adventurer and an observer. She collects the beauty around her in photographs and on paper with paint and ink. Her travels and her art inform each other, with the same winding trails showing up on the mountains she climbs and the lines she draws with her pen. Both are acts of appreciation.
Beth Schaible (third from left) teaching a bookbinding workshop at Penland in 2017.
Beth has a deep connection to Penland and the surrounding mountains—she spent two years here as a core fellow, lived in Asheville for years while doing design and letterpress at 7 Ton Co., and returned to Penland a couple times to teach summer workshops in bookbinding and printing. This fall, we are thrilled to have her back for eight weeks to instruct a Penland concentration.
Beth will teach Letterpress Possibilities this September 23 – November 16. Students will learn to use a wide range of printing techniques, from hand-set type to polymer plates made from drawings, to get their ideas down in ink and paper.
Whether you’re a seasoned printer or you’ve never turned the crank on a Vandercook press, eight weeks in the studio with Beth will get your ideas flowing and your skills sharp. There are a few spaces left in the workshop—register now to discover the letterpress possibilities for your work!
We also have a few work-study scholarships available. Applications are being accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.
Three of Beth’s letterpress printed notecard designs
Letterpress Possibilities
Students in this workshop will learn to translate type and their own hand-drawn imagery into print using hand-set type, carved blocks, polymer plates, and other processes in both monoprints and editions. We’ll discuss the best techniques for each individual’s work. We’ll cover printing-press basics and upkeep and troubleshooting during printing, and we’ll engage in weekly conversations about content, production, and craftsmanship. While the workshop will be mostly print based, we’ll also cover basic book structures. All levels. Code F00L
Beth Schaible—Studio artist and owner of Quill and Arrow (CA); teaching: Pyramid Atlantic Art Center (MD), Asheville Bookworks (NC), North Bay Letterpress Arts (CA), Penland; former Penland core fellow.
